Giving

UCLA's History Department is one of the most highly acclaimed in the nation, with a faculty internationally renowned as teachers and scholars. It is also the largest History Department in the United States, with over 60 faculty, over 1,000 majors and almost 200 graduate students in residence.

During the past decade, two UCLA professors – Joyce Appleby and Lynn Hunt – served as presidents of the American Historical Association, while Joyce Appleby and Gary Nash served as presidents of the Organization of American Historians. Holocaust historian Saul Friedlander was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship – the “genius award” – while eleven UCLA historians are among the 250 historians elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

During the 1990s the National Research Council ranked the UCLA History department sixth nationally, following only Yale, UC Berkeley, Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia. During the previous decade, UCLA had improved from eleventh place, and in so doing passed Stanford, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the rankings. This is particularly impressive since UCLA is the “youngest” among the ranks of elite research universities.

Yet the department has not achieved this prestige by neglecting our undergraduates. Senior faculty teach freshman survey courses, and every history major has the opportunity to take two or more small seminars. In 2012 UCLA gave degrees to 420 undergraduate History majors, compared to much smaller numbers at our competitive institutions: Yale (218); Princeton (119); UC Berkeley (210); Harvard (96); Columbia (150); and Stanford (87). We are proud that so many UCLA students find history an attractive major,and many others take History electives: last year the department taught 26,200 undergraduates - more than any other UCLA department!

HISTORY FACULTY and ALUMNI PROFILES THE CASE FOR GIVINGPlease click on image to view video or article.

Robin D. G. KelleyDistinguished Professor of History and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History

Lynn HuntDistinguished Professor of History and Eugen Weber Endowed Chair in Modern European History

Alongside our existing 12 sub-fields, the History Department supports a number of cross-field clusters. The clusters are intended to attract students and faculty to important themes and current in the historical discipline. The clusters will offer new courses, sponsor outside speakers, and convene Department-based workshops and seminars.